From time to time, Education World reposts articles with important messages. This article, originally posted in 2000, makes a point worth revisiting about the importance of school libraries and librarians.
Last
month, site-based management teams at 11 elementary schools in Kalamazoo,
Michigan, chose to cut their budgets for the 2000-2001 school year by
eliminating the position of school librarian. Did they make the right
decision? A new study indicates that what they made was a big mistake!
Included: Results of a recent study show that students
at schools with strong media centers scored significantly higher on standardized
tests than students at schools with less-well-equipped and staffed libraries.
Last month, site-based management teams at 11 elementary schools in Kalamazoo,
Michigan, chose to cut their budgets for the 2000-2001 school year by
eliminating the position of school librarian. Did they make the right
decision? A new study indicates that what they made was a big mistake!
According to a recent study conducted by Colorado's
Library Research Service (LRS), students at schools with strong media
centers scored significantly higher on standardized tests than students
at schools with less-well-equipped and staffed libraries. The results
of the study, which examined the relationship between the Colorado Student
Assessment Program (CSAP) and certain characteristics of school media
centers, replicated those of earlier studies conducted in Colorado, Pennsylvania,
and Alaska.
Those results, detailed in the report
How School Librarians Help Kids Achieve Standards, revealed that statistically
significant CSAP increases were related to five characteristics of school
media centers:
Program Development: Test scores increased in direct proportion
to the ratio of students to library media center staff and library
media center resources.
Information Technology: Test scores increased in schools in which
networked computers linked library media centers to classrooms and
other instructional areas. The percentage of increase was related
to the number of computers and the extent to which those computers
provided access to library resources, informational databases, and
the World Wide Web.
Collaboration: Test score increases were directly related to the
degree to which library media specialists and teachers worked together
and to the amount of time media specialists spent training teachers
to use information technology.
Flexible Scheduling: Test scores increased when students had greater
freedom to visit the library media center on their own and to use
media center resources at home.
Leadership: Although no direct correlation was found between test
scores and the degree of leadership shown by the library media specialist,
leadership involvement was found to result in greater collaboration
between teachers and media specialists. Greater collaboration resulted
in higher test scores.
SUPPORT YOUR SCHOOL LIBRARIAN
Colorado Study Results
A recent study conducted by Colorado's
Library Research Service (LRS) found that state achievement
test scores
averaged 10 to 15 percent higher in elementary schools and
18 percent higher in middle schools with well-developed library
media programs.
averaged 8 percent higher in elementary schools and 18 to
21 percent higher in middle schools when library media specialists
collaborated with classroom teachers.
averaged 6 to 13 percent higher in elementary schools and
18 to 25 percent higher in middle schools when networked computers
extended the library media center resources into classrooms
and other instructional areas.
averaged 13 to 22 percent higher in middle schools in which
access to the library media center is scheduled flexibly.
The study also indicated that collaboration between teachers
and librarians is more likely when the library media specialist
is a school leader.
"What the report shows," Keith Curry Lance, one of the study's authors,
told Education World, "is that the most important factor in the school media
center is the library media specialist. Almost every school has a media
center. It was only in those schools in which library staffing was sufficient
to allow for the active participation of library media specialists in curriculum
development, student instruction, and teacher education that test scores
increased.
"The school media center is not just a place, it's a program," Lance
said. "The librarian is the best support classroom teachers could hope
to have. [Librarians] can provide educational resources to students
and teachers. They can teach teachers how to use informational technology
to access additional resources. They can teach information literacy
to both teachers and students. They can provide design and support to
the curriculum. Eliminating professional school librarians for the purpose
of increasing teacher-student ratios in classrooms, for example, handicaps
every teacher and is extremely counterproductive."
REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS
The report offers the following recommendations to help school systems
maximize the benefits of their school media centers:
Fund library media center programs sufficiently to allow for adequate
professional and support staff, information resources, and information
technology.
Institute policies and practices that encourage library media specialists
to assume positions of leadership in their schools.
Network technology to make media center resources available throughout
the school.
Institute flexible scheduling wherever possible to allow maximum
student access to library media centers.
In addition, according to Lance,
principals should visibly support library media specialists.
teachers should take advantage of the support and services librarians
provide.
schools of education should build into their curriculum expectations
for introducing pre-teachers to library media center resources.
IS TECHNOLOGY ENOUGH?
A 1994 report on
School Library Media Centers, from the National Center for Education
Statistics, indicated that although 96 percent of U.S. schools had library
media centers, 52 percent of schools did not have a full-time, state-certified
librarian. The report revealed that 11 percent of secondary school students
and 40 percent of elementary school students attended schools that lacked
a full-time, state-certified librarian. According to Julie Walker, executive
director of the AASL, not much has changed since that early report. This
latest study, for example, found that professionally trained librarians
run only about half the elementary school libraries in Colorado.
At a time when school systems are allocating more and more money to
technology, it appears that not enough attention is being paid to the
important role library media centers and library media specialists play
in determining the value of those resources. According to Lance, "The
people who think that computers can create a library-less society are
the same people who thought computers would create a paperless society.
The value of computer network technology is directly related to the
extent to which it provides access to all library media center resources.
Everything worth knowing isn't on the Internet."
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
School Libraries Work
The school library is critical to the learning experience and student academic achievement.
Benefits of School Libraries
This resource provides a handful of links to excellent resources that describe how school libraries benefit students achievement.
Last
month, site-based management teams at 11 elementary schools in Kalamazoo,
Michigan, chose to cut their budgets for the 2000-2001 school year by
eliminating the position of school librarian. Did they make the right
decision? A new study indicates that what they made was a big mistake!
Included: Results of a recent study show that students
at schools with strong media centers scored significantly higher on standardized
tests than students at schools with less-well-equipped and staffed libraries.